About

Create value for small and mid-size businesses.

That has been the mission statement since day one, and it is deliberately unglamorous.

We embed inside small and mid-size businesses to fix the operational problems quietly costing them profitability: inventory planning, supply chain, and financial performance. Mostly for manufacturers, consumer packaged goods companies, and multi-location retail and restaurant groups.

Every solution starts from your requirements, or we are solving a problem you do not have. And it does not end at the recommendation. We implement, execute, and prove the thing works before calling it done.

Our people

Who you will actually be working with.

There is no bench behind us, and no analyst you have never met doing the modeling.

Partners

Founding Partner · Chicago, IL

Sam Millson

Sam has spent his career learning how global supply chains work, then writing the code to make them work better. His combination of innovative development and a collaborative mindset has produced consistent savings everywhere he has been.

He has worked for Universal Studios, Textron and Smith + Nephew, and for restaurants small enough to know every supplier by name. At Smith + Nephew he managed the global data and analytics team, building the standards and dashboards the business ran on. He has also worked a manufacturing floor, improving lean operations and daily throughput.

Sam has driven to 48 states and run marathons since competing at Georgia Tech in cross country and track. He graduated from Georgia Tech with highest honors in Industrial and Systems Engineering.

ManufacturingData analytics Machine learningSystems Process improvement

Partner, Strategy & Operations · Denver, CO

Noah Conner

Noah joined 901 Partners in September 2024 to accelerate the firm's growth while keeping it honest about what being a true partner means.

He has worked with S&P 500 companies including International Paper and Smith + Nephew, improving their forecasting, order management and inventory optimization. He has also worked with startups and smaller businesses on business plans and the KPIs that make growth sustainable. Knowing both the strategy and the execution is what lets him create value for clients.

Noah lives in Denver, where he takes full advantage of the outdoors. He travels, volunteers in his community, and seeks out people from backgrounds unlike his own. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in Supply Chain and Finance, with a concentration in data analytics.

Supply chainInventory Data analyticsProcess improvement Project management

Team

Director of Data Solutions · Chicago, IL

Ian VanArsdall

Ian joined 901 Partners in August 2026 as Director of Data Solutions, where he leads the design and delivery of data infrastructure for the firm's clients.

Born and raised in Bradenton, Florida, Ian studied Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. His work at Sun Hydraulics, KMC Stampings and Nicor Gas gave him a hands-on understanding of how manufacturing and utilities companies actually run, and how stronger data management and intelligence lead to better business decisions. Building sustainable data infrastructure and untangling complex problems is what energizes him, and it is the mindset he brings to every 901 engagement.

Ian lives in Chicago, where he plays volleyball, spends time with friends, and tries new restaurants.

Data infrastructureManufacturing UtilitiesData management Systems

What makes us different

We are consultants who hate consulting.

Things we have watched go wrong elsewhere, and refuse to repeat.

Work that creates value for the executives while becoming increasingly burdensome and unsustainable for the people doing the job every day.
Clients who hesitate before picking up the phone because of what the call will cost.
Three extra people sitting silently on a video call, billed by the hour.
Projects extended because ending them is bad for the vendor.
Reports that fall over the month after handover.

We do not advise and exit. We build with you, transfer ownership of everything we create, and stay until the improvement is real. The explicit intention is that you outgrow us.

The name

Why we stopped being The Millson Group.

A surname is an accurate name for a one-person firm. We are not one anymore.

9/01 · September 1, 2020, the founding date.
9/01 ·September 1, 2024, the day Noah joined and the firm became a partnership.
901 · the area code of Memphis, Tennessee, where the firm started and where we met.

Same team, same work. Only the sign on the door changed, in September 2026.

Come find out if we are useful.

Start a conversation → See the work